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The cabin was stifling and musty, but Momo liked it that way. It gave her home a natural and unique signature that was lost in others—with their strange concoctions that they claimed were disinfectants. There was dust in the air, but it made her feel as if she was living in another time. An ancient time, when man focused more on the wonders of the world and not of war. There was far too much violence now, and she wanted none of it.
She cleared her throat and the silence was washed away as if her vocal cords had given off a shockwave. Suddenly the room felt full and uncomfortable, as if someone were talking in the distance and she could only make out a word here and there. She shifted in her homemade wooden chair and leaned further into her elbows on the table, focusing her gaze on the metal orb she had in her massive hands.
She tried to recapture that lost magic—of falling into a trance that blurred the lines of work and fun, but she found herself distracted. Now she wasn’t just exploring the object in her hand—letting her fingers do the work until an idea popped into her mind—now she was developing labels for it. She was determining what the object would become and not let it take its natural course.
A miniature bomb? A doorstop? A paperweight? Perhaps it would be the catalyst for a new sport. The communities would certainly like that. Playing games and watching athletes show off their muscles were the only things that got them together these days.
She grunted and cast it aside. The metal ball rolled off the wooden table and onto the floor, kicking up a cloud of dust. She watched it form, rising up into the beams of sunlight that shone from her unkempt windows—cracked, dirty and neglected.
They were a reflection of her very soul.
Momo sighed and let her face fall into her hands. What was she to do now? Her tinkering was merely a distraction, barely a hobby, but it was all she had to keep herself from losing it. Her arms shook as she clasped them together, begging them silently to stop.
It was starting again. The shakes.
She clenched her teeth as her long black hair fell into her eyes. She didn’t shove it away. All her attention was focused on her hands as they violently wobbled in front of her. Her elbows were beginning to cause the table under her to tremble and she nearly gave up. She almost rose to her feet and trashed the room again, as she often did when the shakes came. It was the only thing that satiated it.
And she was tired of them.
Why did she always have to be fighting? Why couldn’t she find solace in the confines of her home, playing with her toys and losing her thoughts in the mundane?
She sighed as the shaking began to fade. At least the images didn’t accompany it this time. That was the worst.
Until next time, she thought to herself, as if she was saying good-bye to an old friend.
She rose from her chair due to her own volition and walked over to the door. She thrust it open, caring little for the whimpers of the hinges, and stepped outside into the warm sunlight. Her bare feet pressed against the soft uncut grass as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Calm, she told herself, as if she was in a trance. Calm. Yes. That’s it. Remember where you are, and what you are doing here.
“Morning!” an overly eager neighbor called out to her.
Damn it! She screamed on the inside. Instead of punching him in the face, she opened her eyes slowly and smiled warmly at the young man before her. He was clean shaven, tall, supple. His hands had never even heard of callouses. The sight of him both sickened and saddened her.
“Good morning,” he said again, flashing her a full set of teeth.
She fought the urge to roll her eyes. “Morning, Kent,” she said. “You’re up early.”
“It’s noon,” he said with concern. He studied her for signs of distress. She felt violated.
“So, it is,” she said, unsure of what to say. At best, she wanted the conversation to end.
“I’ve been up since six,” he declared proudly as if he would gain rank for doing the ordinary. “Working on bulking up. You see the All-star game the other day? Landon was a beast!”
“He was facing simpletons,” Momo said. She closed her eyes and shook her head slightly. She had to stop being so negative. It would only make the community worry about her more.
“Well, yeah,” Kent replied. “I mean; it’s not like he would play against the pros. He’s past his prime. I know that.”
“Sorry,” she said, wincing. “I didn’t mean to be rude.”
“It’s okay,” he said, his eyes wavering. She realized that she had offended him somehow, but she just didn’t have the effort to delve into how.
“So,” she said, deciding to change the subject. “What are you up to now?”
“I was thinking of heading over to the training grounds,” he said. “My mom said I could go,” he replied, pointing back at his cabin. Momo noticed that the walls had recently been scrubbed with water and homemade soap. There were also clean linens hanging from a line outside the left window.
“How old are you?” Momo asked, turning back to the boy.
“Sixteen, ma’am,” he said.
“And you...you like living here? This...community.” She had to remember that although she and her former comrades had many terrible names for the place in which they called home, the common folk thought of their abode as merely a regular cog in the system. To them, there was no difference between the three communities. Each had their place in the order of things, designed to keep the inhabitants healthy, happy, and supportive. Not many knew what was really going on behind the scenes.
“I love it here,” he said, pulling up on his white wool shirt. It was a little too big for him. “We’re the heroes.”
“Heroes?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “What does a hero do?”
“They fight evil,” he declared proudly, sticking out his chest a little. “They protect the communities, and they maintain the peace. Without the military branch, we couldn’t defend ourselves.”
“It doesn’t bother you that the communities haven’t seen an outsider within its borders? Or that we’ve been fighting against each other in the absence of an enemy?”
“Huh?” he asked, his eyes glazing over. Apparently, she had ruptured his brain with that line of thinking.
“Never mind,” she laughed, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I’m just being silly.”
“Oh,” he chuckled nervously. “I didn’t know what you were saying.”
“Not many do.”
“Hey, you’re kinda cool,” he said, “want to come with me to the training grounds? I can escort you.”
Momo no longer felt disdain for the boy. It was now replaced by pity. Did he not remember who she was? Did he not remember what she could do? Also...kinda cool? Did he know anything about her? Surely his parents had to have told him stories about their next-door neighbor. The one hidden in obscurity, who would wake them in the middle of the night with violent outbursts from inside her home, or who would be so silent, they would think the cabin was abandoned after a few days of complete silence. Did he not remember?
“Sure,” she said with a nod. “I’ll go with you.”
“At my side, my lady,” he said, bowing to her.
She followed him down the knoll toward the heart of the military, trying to focus on her surroundings and not the violent images scratching at the back of her skull.
MOMO FELT A LITTLE jump in her heart when she saw a pair of soldiers clashing against one another with their massive swords. It wasn’t fear that momentarily took her, it was excitement. She had to admit that although she didn’t care for the savagery of battle, there was a grace to the warrior’s dance. Two opposing forces trying to overcome the other, and all it took was a moment—a split second. It was like watching nature itself past judgment. It was like poetry being shouted upon the mountaintops. It was elegant in its savagery.
Yet she turned away after a couple guilty glimpses, because she didn’t want to remember what came afterwards—what followed once a man dominated another. This was best left in the pages of history books or discussed in detail amongst ignorant children. She longed to preserve the innocence of battle.
“This way,” Kent said, shouting to her from several yards away. She hadn’t noticed him getting so far ahead of her. They weren’t in the center of Hearth, but an old training ground above the cities, where those that weren’t interested in new techniques trained without interruption. They stuck to the tried and true, desiring to defeat their opponent with brute strength and tactics taught by old men that had lost their sight. The smell of sweat permeated the air as heavily as the steel, and the men and women were barely dressed, covering only the essentials to not distract each other. All other articles of clothing were deemed a hindrance, and suddenly she remembered why she rarely returned to this place. She stuck out.
She was a modest dresser when she was at home, feeling as if covering up her scars and physique would make her less noticeable. It was all in her head, but wasn’t everything? The shakes, she had been told, were in her head, but if that was so, how could they control her so completely?
“You coming?” Kent called, and she waved him off. She didn’t want him to cause a commotion and cause the trainers and students to give her a second look.
Kent sucked his teeth and ran off, bumbling along until he was joined by a couple other boys with dirty faces and smiles that were far too wide. Momo decided then and there that she would head home, but of course, as soon as she took one step to turn around, someone called her expressly by name.
She turned and smiled, as this was the customary thing to do when greeting a fellow human being, but the man before her wasn’t smiling. He had hair all over his face, wild and unkempt. His eyes were beady, and his lips were bulbous. He had a fat gut and he was a half foot shorter than she. He rubbed his belly as he breathed, and she wondered if the belt and skirt at his waist would survive the rest of the day.
“That is your name, isn’t it?” he asked as she cast her eyes beyond him to the stone ring in the center of the old training grounds. There was a dozen men and women there training, but not one had turned their attention toward her. They continued to spar over the cracks and the tufts of grass blades sticking out beyond the surface. She turned her head and saw that the old men were sitting in wicker chairs, laughing and slapping each other on the knee. No one was looking out of the faded windows of the one-room cabins, and the sky itself was still a crystal blue. Nothing had changed. The gods had yet not called her back to the fray.
“Momo,” the fat man gruffed, and she cast her eyes down upon him.
“Yes?” she asked, not recognizing the man.
“I asked you what you’re doing here,” he said.
“I came with...a neighbor of mine. A boy named Kent. He wanted me to see where he hangs his sword.”
“You’ve been here before. You could have told him that.”
“How would you know?” she asked him. She could feel her blood going cold. If she was a river, she had just become a secluded pond.
“We all keep tabs on the Great Ones,” he said. “Don’t act surprised.”
“You’ve been to my home?”
“Of course not,” he guffawed, waddling over to the right of her. She turned to face him swiftly.
“Then what do you mean?”
“It’s just that we ask about you and the others constantly. We’ve got nothing better to do than to talk.”
“Talking is how you get fat.”
“Ow, that stings. And I thought you were the silent type.”
Momo snapped out of her stupor. “I’m sorry, I did not mean to be rude.” She didn’t particularly feel like apologizing, but it was the appropriate thing to do when insulting a fellow human being.
“No need,” he laughed. “We have thick hides. A little too thick if you know what I mean.”
“I will leave if you like,” she said suddenly.
His smile faded. “No, no, I’m not trying to—let us start over. I wanted to talk to you personally, and any of the Great Ones that I happen to come across. There, um...well, you know Landon?”
“Who doesn’t?” she said flatly, waiting for him to get to the point.
“Well, he’s going on an expedition to see what’s beyond our borders.”
“I’ve seen what’s beyond our borders,” she replied.
“Perhaps, but have you seen what’s beyond that?”
“I don’t follow,” she said. Now he had her attention.
“You’ve traveled for miles to find other potential communities, but no one has ever come across another besides our three, and it’s been that way for so long that many people just don’t care to try anymore. Now Landon, you know what he’s like. Once he’s set his mind to something, he’ll see it through, and he plans on going as far as his will and wits can carry him.”
“He could die.”
“The man knows that he’s on the dark sides of the moons when it comes to his prime. He’s got nothing to lose.”
“He has friends, fans, love and support.”
“Would that make you happy? Friends? Fans? All that you mentioned.”
Momo thought about it for a moment. Not because she didn’t know the answer, but because she figured that it was a notion she had never explored thoroughly before. Finally, she locked in her response. “I suppose it wouldn’t,” she said.
“You two are similar in that regard. Two aging flowers trying to release their pollen into the rest of the world.”
“I’m sure you were searching for a different metaphor,” she said.
“I’m trying to keep the brain sharp,” he guffawed again. She waited until he calmed back down. “My, my, I tell you, there are a couple I’ve come up with that would even make you smile.”
“Why did you want to tell me about the expedition again?” she asked. It was like trying to get a child to explain a nightmare.
“Because we’re worried about him. All of Hearth. You know how much we love the man. We laugh, but that doesn’t me we don’t care. Now...many would volunteer, but it’s not so simple, leaving family and foundations behind. Many of us are still contracted to Musgrave after all. Even the old men over there...they are still bound to this place due to all the knowledge they can impart to the youth.”
“So, you want one of us...Great Ones...to accompany him?”
“It would make us all sleep a little better, and it would help ensure that he gets home safe.”
“And this is because most of the Great Ones are deemed...unstable.”
“Well, that’s one way of looking at it,” he said with a wide grin. “But I tend to look at it as...the Great Ones having freedom. Sure, you all have your vices to overcome, but at least you can live how you please. Services rendered for your help in conflicts past.”
“I have no reason to go. Have you asked any of the others?”
“No. Momo, you know we haven’t. You haven’t been away that long.”
She ignored his response. “He knows nothing about me. He is not my comrade.”
“What about considering Landon as one?”
“What’s in it for me?”
“What isn’t? Look at you. You’re a hermit, wasting away while the world around you worry and whispers. You’ve got no one. You hate being alone even if you won’t admit it, and visions of the past plague you. Isn’t it better to go back out into the world one more time and create some replacements?”
Momo shot her head up toward the stone ring and scanned it with purpose.
“What is it?” the fat man asked.
“Kent,” she said through her grit teeth. When she didn’t find him on the stone ring, her gaze descended upon the man before her. “You have been to my home, haven’t you? You used the boy as your proxy.”
“Call it an outer body experience,” he chuckled.
“I call it a violation of my privacy, which happens to be a law given by Musgrave. You’re not supposed to provoke the Great Ones.”
“That’s an old wives’ tale and you know it. There is no such law,” he snickered. “And you’re only deemed a Great One because the communities have decided it. The title holds no weight except for in the fables of our youth and the nightmares of our enemies, all of which, I must remind you, are within the three communities. Have you forgotten that you grew up in Hearth? Don’t think I haven’t seen you when you were weak, small, and frail.”
“You’ve made your exhausting point,” Momo snapped.
“Sorry, sorry,” he said, raising his hands up in surrender. “You know how fire operates around here. People see a flame and they just want to start throwing in sticks. What I’m trying to say is that you should really consider going. It could be good for your health.”
“Maybe I don’t care about that,” she replied. “Maybe I prefer to die.”
“Then do it already,” he said darkly, narrowing his eyes at her. “Unlike you, some of us have to share our home with others. And it would be nice to be relocated somewhere other than Comida. Only the Ancients know what goes on there.”
